


Seventy Two

by bandwidthlimit



Series: Leverage Ficlets [23]
Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25416271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bandwidthlimit/pseuds/bandwidthlimit
Relationships: Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford
Series: Leverage Ficlets [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840567
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Seventy Two

They don't celebrate birthdays as a team. It's not a rule, it's just not anything they've ever done. They do celebrate Christmas (informally), and Halloween (more formally, but only because it's a generally informal holiday). Parker has shown more enthusiasm for Halloween than Nate had ever wanted, dressing up in more flamboyant costumes every year. He's sure Hardison helps her with them. The only saving grace for Halloween is that Parker's love for the fun sized Snickers and Butterfingers has diminished since she began frequenting chocolate conventions, and since her sugar highs on Halloween have become moderately more controllable.

But, for birthdays, events are quieter. They all know each others birthdays, or so he thinks, until he drops a casual comment into conversation with Sophie. They're laying in bed, listening to Hardison and Parker make breakfast downstairs (he doesn't know why they always eat in his apartment, but he knows it's not worth it to argue), and asks her, “What do you want for your birthday?”

She lifts her head off his chest and looks at him, confused. “What?”

“Your birthday. It's this Friday, isn't it?”

Comprehension dawns, and she smiles a smile that makes him feel like he's a child that just said something amusing. “Oh. No, that's Sophie's birthday, not mine.”

He frowns, and it only increases when he hears something break downstairs. Parker shouts up, “Sorry!” and he sighs.

“When  _ is _ your birthday?”

Her smile widens, and Nate's heart sinks. “You're the mastermind – you figure it out.”

After they've gotten up and gone downstairs, to no raised eyebrows (after they'd been outed by Sherman, the whole team expects to see them come out of private rooms together), Nate pulls Hardison aside and tries the usual methods. When Hardison denies any knowledge of Sophie's actual birthday, saying, “Man, she told us her name, not all of her personal information. It's not like she showed us her baby footprints or anything like that,” he tries the next best thing after Sophie and Parker leave.

“Right. Well, can you pull up all the aliases you have for her?” He stares at the screen as at least thirty different passport photos for Sophie fly up on the big screen. “Okay, now take out all the ones you provided.” At least twenty five disappear, leaving only five names that Nate finds vaguely familiar.

The dates they provide have absolutely nothing in common. Nate sighs in frustration and pours himself a cup of coffee, barely resisting the urge to put anything extra into it.

That night he goes to bed alone, brooding. He decides the next morning when he wakes up (still alone), that he's going to treat every day like her birthday until he gets it right. He's running on the assumption that she'll have some sort of tell when it's the right day, but with Sophie, he can't be sure. At least this way, he knows he won't miss it.

He starts out small, and gives her his own copy of a book she'd once mentioned she'd liked. She looks at him oddly when he hands it to her, a little sloppily wrapped in brown paper with his own handwriting scrawled across the front reading, “Happy birthday.” He just shrugs when she asks, and hides that he's watching her open it from behind his coffee cup. Her surprised smile is worth it, and he congratulates himself on Day 1's successful completion.

He makes it for a week before he starts to struggle finding her gifts (he stays away from flowers, because he doesn't want her to have to check it for bombs first). He's more thrilled than she is by the end of the month when he's managed to give her twenty three gifts she's been surprised to receive. She's onto his game by now, of course, but he doesn't let it slow him down.

He's given her seventy two gifts before she shows any sign of him being close. He's just handed her a magnificent silk scarf that she instantly wraps around her neck (and he was right, when he picked it – the red brings out her eyes and compliments her complexion, and he hopes she wears it often), and she smiles at him, and there's something in her eyes that he knows hasn't been there for the last seventy one. “Thank you, Nate, it's beautiful.” She kisses him, but this time he doesn't let her go.

“It's today, isn't it.” It's not a question, but he's smiling, and his voice is amused.

She widens her eyes, but it's too dramatically innocent to be true, “What's today?”

“It's your birthday. November 17th is your birthday.”

“Alright, you caught me. It's my birthday.” She brings her arms up to rest on his shoulders, since he shows no sign of letting go, and watches him calmly as he basks in his victory.

Nate's smile actually hurts his face a little, but he feels like he earned it. Seventy two days of gifts, but he hadn't missed the right one. He doesn't care what year she was born – Sophie has always been ageless to him, though he's more aware every day that they're both getting older, – all that matters is that he  _ knows _ now, and he doesn't plan on missing another one.

He kisses her, softly, and murmurs, “Happy birthday, Sophie,” into her ear.


End file.
